This invention relates to means for tenderizing meats and more particularly to roller machines for pulling and stretching the meat.
In some cultures it is a custom to "tenderize" meats mechanically prior to cooking. This process involves stretching, perforating or pounding the meat in an attempt to break down the cell structure to facilitate the cooking and eating.
The original and most popular form of mechanical tenderizer was a hammer which was provided with a head which had a plurality of projections thereon to "pull" the meat through hammering.
A second form resembles a roller and it is to this second species that the present invention belongs.
Previously, tenderizers of the second type have been inefficient, difficult to use and expensive to produce. They have usually comprised a structure which has a roller with knife blades mounted therein but such structures are expensive to manufacture and difficult to clean. In some prior roller structures the knife blades were rotated so that the "tenderizing" has been ineffective in that they were relatively static with respect to the meat. In others, it has been difficult to remove the blades for cleaning.